T Rex 500 LIPO Charger

[aviator732]

Hi

I have just purchesed a used T Rex 500, it is complete with servos etc, I am just about to get a couple of flightmax 3000 mah batteries, can anyone suggest a good resonably priced charger?

Thanks

[Paulice]

Welcome to the forum.
The Cell pro range are very good, but not cheap. the cheaper one's i'm not sure, but someone will chirp in with some suggestions soon.

[Andy from Sandy]

I am with you Paulice. I recommend the CellPro range because they take out the guess work. Set the charger to 1C, plug in the pack, charger does its job, finish.

Without boring you the cell pro chargers work out exactly what charge current can be used when set to 1C and automatically monitor the pack and varies the charge current accordingly.

For the T-Rex 500 packs either the CellPro 10S or CellPro PowerLab 8.

[Downdraft]

Hi

I have just purchesed a used T Rex 500, it is complete with servos etc, I am just about to get a couple of flightmax 3000 mah batteries, can anyone suggest a good resonably priced charger?

Thanks

Are you buying 6S packs or 5S packs? This makes a big difference as the cellpro 10 will charge 2x 5s packs but only 1x 6s pack at a time.
Also if they're 5s the charger doesn't need to be quite so posh or fancy.
I have to agree though cheap chargers are poor economy because a good charger will get the best from your batteries and should make them last a bit longer.
I have a Cellpro 10s and a Graupner Ultramat 16, I could recommend either but neither are cheap

[aviator732]

I know very little about this subject, I think I will be going with 6S packs

Thanks

[Brian Gifford]

I have a 500, running 6s. I have this charger: -

Fast Lad Performance

It has it's limits, but is a good all-round charger. It can charge lipos, nimh, lead acid, it can balance, balance charge, discharge, etc. It has a built-in mains supply, but can also run off 12-15v, so can be used at the field.

The limiting factor is it has a maximum output of 50w, which means it can't charge a 6s lipo at more than 2,2 amps.

I've had mine for 2 years now, and had no problems with it.

[dogbiscuit]

The limiting factor is it has a maximum output of 50w, which means it can't charge a 6s lipo at more than 2,2 amps.

so how long does it take to charge the 6s lipo at 2.2 amps?

[challis349]

What I would say is that with cheap chargers, ie, imax b6 cheap, it would be all false economy so Stay clear from them, they don't balance that well at all and not good on 6s, I have an icharger 206b which balances extremely well, if you get something like the icharger or cellpro 10s, then for home charging you will also need a psu

[Balders]

Just to buck the trend slightly, I have 2 x Imax B6 chargers, which I had when mostly flying a Trex 450. I also use these for charging my 6S packs absolutely fine, on the understanding that I do all my charging at home. If I were to charge at the field, I would certainly want something a bit faster, but as I don't mind if it takes an hour and a half to charge a pack (halved because of having two, therefore two at a time) it's not a problem. Never had a problem with balancing, and I know for a fact that I'm never gonna "cook" the packs because I can't charge over 1C anyway!!

[Brian Gifford]

so how long does it take to charge the 6s lipo at 2.2 amps?

Assuming it's discharged to just over 20%, it takes roughly an hour per lipo. I'm running 2600mAh lipos.

[Farmer Giles]

I've been using a Turnigy Accucell 6 for 2 years with no issues at all.

[heliboy]

go the cellpro route..Buy once and then its done

[stumpe]

I've been using a Turnigy Accucell 6 for 2 years with no issues at all.

+1, been using this charger for 20 months and been just fine, great little charger for the price.

Lee

[Kozmyk]

If you're trying to keep costs down while having a reasonably short charge time then you could consider Voltz 6250 OR iCharger 106B-plus 250W 6s Balance/Charger - same charger different badge and a Voltz PSU. This setup could charge both your batteries at 1C, if they were connected in parallel, with capacity to spare. The Voltz PSU is useful in that it can easily be daisy chained with another one in series or parallel to provide more power when you come to need it.

If you think you might be getting something bigger within the next year then it may be better to get something more powerful. Buying too cheap now could see you having to buy all over again in the near future.

50W chargers are going to be slow for lipos over 3s and waiting around charging one pack at a time is fine if you've got all night.

Getting your packs charged in a convenient time i.e < 1hour, is going to take either multiple chargers, multiple ports and/or parallel charging.

P.S.
A 300Wcharger could charge 4 x 6S 3000mAH at 1C in parallel, flat out.

[Gav]

I've been using a Turnigy Accucell 6 for 2 years with no issues at all.

+2

I have 2 of these - cheap and work a treat - no issues at all. I was able to recover a low cell on a brand new lipo with minimal hassle. Does the job!

needs a 12V 5A power supply.